Why choose the planar Shepard

[about50heavies]

What are the requirements for the planar Shepard prrstige class? are the advantages of choosing planar Shepard over stright druid.

[Alleran]

Because Shepard is the galaxy's best hope against the Reapers.

:smallwink:

More seriously, it's a full-casting PrC, so you don't lose anything, and Druid is already a Tier One class (solidly Tier One, at that - it has class features more powerful than entire classes, to quote the Order of the Stick). It advances your wild shape and even provides you with two incredibly powerful abilities: Planar Bubble and the ability to use the SLAs of anything you change into.

You can use Planar Bubble to shatter action economy, but the SLAs are incredible. Normally, even getting access to supernatural abilities of a form is difficult. You need either Shapechange (a 9th level spell) or the Assume Supernatural Ability feat out of Savage Species. With Planar Shepherd, you can pick the Plane of Fire and Wild Shape into an Efreeti. Free wishes for everybody! Or with other options, there's a Solar. All those spell-likes! Or a Titan. Free Gate spells!

And that's going easy with it.

[Acanous]

Because Shepard is the galaxy's best Only hope against the Reapers.


Ah yes, "Reapers".

Planar Shepard is basically the only PrC that sacrifices nothing and gives you MORE power on a druid. You basically have the Manual of the Planes as a class feature.

[Gigas Breaker]

You choose it to annoy your dm.

[LTwerewolf]

Planar shepherd is one of those you don't throw on an unsuspecting dm, and even with a dm that's aware, you need to throttle yourself.

[gorfnab]

Planar Shepherd Handbook (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19871574/The_Planar_Shepherd_Handbook)

[Ketiara]

If you don't want books thrown at you, you should stay away from the planes that have different time and perhaps even different gravity than the noal plane you are on.

[GenericMook]

Mentioning Planar Shepard at a table is a good way to have lots of books, coke cans, and spare dice thrown at you. Same goes for Beholder Mage and Illithid Savant.

I had a bruise from when I wanted to progress into one.

[about50heavies]

Does alignment affect what plane you can choose

[Alleran]

Does alignment affect what plane you can choose
You can't choose a plane with an alignment trait opposed to any component of your own alignment. So a NG druid with Planar Shepherd levels can't pick Hell, for example (since Hell is evil-aligned).

[about50heavies]

Is there anything else i should know about the planar Shepard?

[Carth]

Is there anything else i should know about the planar Shepard?

One of the most commonly cited abuses is pairing it with the plane of dreams, which has 10:1 time with the material plane. So 10 rounds pass on the plane of dreams for every one round on the material plane. This effectively allows you to get 10 rounds worth of actions in a single round. However, also be aware that the plane of dreams explicitly does not exist by default per Manual of the Planes, it's given as an optional addition to cosmologies you create yourself. I believe Eberron is the only campaign setting where it exists by default.

[Socratov]

One of the most commonly cited abuses is pairing it with the plane of dreams, which has 10:1 time with the material plane. So 10 rounds pass on the plane of dreams for every one round on the material plane. This effectively allows you to get 10 rounds worth of actions in a single round. However, also be aware that the plane of dreams explicitly does not exist by default per Manual of the Planes, it's given as an optional addition to cosmologies you create yourself. I believe Eberron is the only campaign setting where it exists by default.

which is why eberron is so damn fun to play (if this is your thing).

Anyway, it seems that Dollurrh (Realm fo the dead) is a plane without time. So manifest the planar bubble and time disappears and then what?does everything freeze? does everthing move at top speed? does the game end since time stops and thus no actions (taking up a timespan) can take place. I mean, that would be the real deal if it comes to stopping time... (almost dividing by 0)

[navar100]

One of the most commonly cited abuses is pairing it with the plane of dreams, which has 10:1 time with the material plane. So 10 rounds pass on the plane of dreams for every one round on the material plane. This effectively allows you to get 10 rounds worth of actions in a single round. However, also be aware that the plane of dreams explicitly does not exist by default per Manual of the Planes, it's given as an optional addition to cosmologies you create yourself. I believe Eberron is the only campaign setting where it exists by default.

But "everyone" has a Plane of Fire so bond with that, become an Efreet, and give out free wishes. Planar Shepherd is an interesting idea on paper but in practice breaks the game to unplayability. It's one of those things even I agree 3E blew it. It's the new 3.0 Haste.

[Vaz]

Why Choose Planar Shepherd? Well, my favourite is the Druid+ class features. The spellcasting is good, and the Planar Bubble is good, but the ability to Wildshape into your chosen planar denizens is fantastic, IMHO.

Formian Queen; if you can get Mindsight before or retrain your feats to be able to take Mindsight, you can get a 50mile mindsight.

Pit Fiends; At Will Blasphemy. (18 HD).

Druid 5/Planar Shepherd 9, Wild Shape Amulet (or something along those lines, Magic of Faerun, though, so cross-setting), gets Wild Shape as an 18HD Creature; so Solar or Pit Fiends at ECL 14. Prepare to be hit by the bookshelf.

Edit @ Socratov - only places within the Bubble are subject to no time. As there is no actual "definition" of time as an actual "thing" other than the continued progress of events, it could be argued you just kill yourself and eveything within the bubble the first time you activate the bubble. It's one hell of a way to kill the BBEG, sure. But you "kill" yourself, with no way of bringing yourself back; you're "alive", you just cannot "progress events".

[ddude987]

Why Choose Planar Shepherd? Well, my favourite is the Druid+ class features. The spellcasting is good, and the Planar Bubble is good, but the ability to Wildshape into your chosen planar denizens is fantastic, IMHO.

Formian Queen; if you can get Mindsight before or retrain your feats to be able to take Mindsight, you can get a 50mile mindsight.

Pit Fiends; At Will Blasphemy. (18 HD).

Druid 5/Planar Shepherd 9, Wild Shape Amulet (or something along those lines, Magic of Faerun, though, so cross-setting), gets Wild Shape as an 18HD Creature; so Solar or Pit Fiends at ECL 14. Prepare to be hit by the bookshelf.

Edit @ Socratov - only places within the Bubble are subject to no time. As there is no actual "definition" of time as an actual "thing" other than the continued progress of events, it could be argued you just kill yourself and eveything within the bubble the first time you activate the bubble. It's one hell of a way to kill the BBEG, sure. But you "kill" yourself, with no way of bringing yourself back; you're "alive", you just cannot "progress events".

Actually because time is relative you wouldn't "kill" yourself but just exists in your own time. You can do whatever you want and as much as you want until you decide to end the bubble. At that point you go back to wherever you were in time/space and nobody has moved, nothing has happened, essentially no time has passed. From your view you spent as long as you wanted doing things but from everyone else's view you activated the spell and nothing happened or rather everything happened so fast that nobody but you knows what happened.

[Immabozo]

Actually because time is relative you wouldn't "kill" yourself but just exists in your own time. You can do whatever you want and as much as you want until you decide to end the bubble. At that point you go back to wherever you were in time/space and nobody has moved, nothing has happened, essentially no time has passed. From your view you spent as long as you wanted doing things but from everyone else's view you activated the spell and nothing happened or rather everything happened so fast that nobody but you knows what happened.

Or, on the opposite end of things, After a short time buffing, you end the buble and EVERYTHING has happened outside the buble and it is thousands, or millions of years later. Who's to say which one?


Because Shepard is the galaxy's best hope against the Reapers.

:smallwink:

you, sir, are my hero, for that reference.

[about50heavies]

What are the best planes to choose

[Vaz]

Depends on what you want. There is the 10:1 ratio time plane for abuse, then there are WildShape forms which are dependent on a plane. Are you a scout? Then a formian plane with 50mile mindsight is about as good as you can get.

Do you want an Angel, then Celestia, a Devil, then Baator.

[about50heavies]

Depends on what you want. There is the 10:1 ratio time plane for abuse, then there are WildShape forms which are dependent on a plane. Are you a scout? Then a formian plane with 50mile mindsight is about as good as you can get.

Do you want an Angel, then Celestia, a Devil, then Baator.

One that has good wild shape forms for a chaotic neutral aligned character

[Gavinfoxx]

Which setting are you in?

Greyhawk/Core?
Forgotten Realms?
Golarion?
Eberron?

Some homebrew setting?

[about50heavies]

My group is using pathfinder but DM has allowed for 3.5 stuff to be used

[Gavinfoxx]

My group is using pathfinder but DM has allowed for 3.5 stuff to be used

Well, what campaign setting is it, though? The question I asked is independent of rules set used.

[Answerer]

Mentioning Planar Shepard at a table is a good way to have lots of books, coke cans, and spare dice thrown at you. Same goes for Beholder Mage and Illithid Savant.
Eeeh. Planar Shepherd is undoubtedly broken, but it doesn't go in the same category of "painfully-obvious gamebreaker" the way Beholder Mage and Illithid Savant are. It's a too-good chassis (seriously, you're going to advance Druid spellcasting, Animal Companion, and Wild Shape?) plus some class features that, with the right choices, make an entire campaign go pear-shaped. But you still have to make those choices.

Beholder Mage is just "I cast ten spells a round; what do you do?"

[Urpriest]

My group is using pathfinder but DM has allowed for 3.5 stuff to be used

Then you'll have to ask your DM how Planar Shepherd works, since almost all of it depends on rules for Animal Companions, Wild Shape, and the planes, all of which changed in Pathfinder.

[about50heavies]

Well, what campaign setting is it, though? The question I asked is independent of rules set used.

Golarion I think

[HMS Invincible]

Bad things will happen if you ask your dm to convert planar shepherd. Is he going to allow new forms for your animal companion? Is your wildshape going to gain SLAs? Will you get traits of the time bubble? The 2nd and 3rd things are the ones to watch out for, and the 1st thing is a pain in the butt for the DM, unless you work out a short list that you can quickly add to your animal companion forms.

[about50heavies]

What are the differences in animal companions between the planar sheperd and the druid

[Greenish]

What are the differences in animal companions between the planar sheperd and the druidThe right question is "what's the difference between Animal Companions in 3.5 and PF?"

[Norin]

Did you read the PrC?
Did you read the Handbook?

Seems alot, if not all, of your questions so far can be answered by those two.

:smallwink:

[about50heavies]

Did you enjoy the class when you played it

[Vaz]

Eeeh. Planar Shepherd is undoubtedly broken, but it doesn't go in the same category of "painfully-obvious gamebreaker" the way Beholder Mage and Illithid Savant are. It's a too-good chassis (seriously, you're going to advance Druid spellcasting, Animal Companion, and Wild Shape?) plus some class features that, with the right choices, make an entire campaign go pear-shaped. But you still have to make those choices.

Beholder Mage is just "I cast ten spells a round; what do you do?"
Planar Shepherds' response; "cast 10 spells a round too"

[GenericMook]

Eeeh. Planar Shepherd is undoubtedly broken, but it doesn't go in the same category of "painfully-obvious gamebreaker" the way Beholder Mage and Illithid Savant are. It's a too-good chassis (seriously, you're going to advance Druid spellcasting, Animal Companion, and Wild Shape?) plus some class features that, with the right choices, make an entire campaign go pear-shaped. But you still have to make those choices.

Beholder Mage is just "I cast ten spells a round; what do you do?"

Well, I tossed it in that category because, as far as I remember, it's the only thing that really comes close to those two, but can be taken by a run-of-the-mill humanoid. It's not really as broken as a Beholder Mage or Illithid Savant when those two are played correctly, but Planar Shepard gives incredibly powerful abilities to a class with incredibly powerful class features.

Any intelligently played Planar Shepard is probably going to point and laugh at anything the DM throws at him.